The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-06-07
FOULLY BETRAYED.
Three Gold Hunters Left to Perish
In Desert.
Abandoned by Mexican Joe In . Sum
Stricken Land-Three Days With
out water-Rescued by Custom
House Guards.

No mortal being, unless he has trav-
eled the length and breadth of Mexico
within the past six months, can form
any correct idea of the widespread
drought which has prevailed there.
The tourist over the Mexican Central
railroad has, of course, looked out on
each side of the roadway upon the vast
dusty plains that stretch into the dim
horizon or end abruptly at the base of
the volcanic rock ranges. He did not
know, however, that the deep, dry ba-
sins from which he saw the dust wreath
ing i'm columns As smoke from huge cal
drons were the beds of large ponds,
which heretofore at this season have
been many feet deep with water, and
covered with every variety of aquatic
wild fowl; that the banks of the aceguids,
which irrigate the large ranches, no
longer were strewn with the golden
leaves of the cottonwood, reminding
one of Tom Tiddler's ground; that these
bitches were as dry and parched as the
bleached bones of the cattle strewn in
the mesquite brush; that the century
plants and Spanish daggers were of
paler green, and that even the great
burning powders i'm the arroyos seemed
with all nature to pant for moisture.
Last year these now CRASHES plains
were dotted with large bands of ante
lope and tracked by myriads of quail.
Now, no game can be seen far OF near,
for what has not persisted has migrated
long since to the ever-watered dis
tricts. This direful condition has nee
essarily been destructive to the stock,
and made the lives of the rG'scheros a
burden of makeshifts and disappoint-
ments.
1t was early in the drought that Mex
lean Joe, a restless wanderer on the
plains on the northeastern part of the
State of chihuahua, came to Ell Paso,
Texas, with a story of gold find that
set the three listeners to whom he con-
fided his secret wild with the most hope
full anticipations. He told of spot
far out on a forty-mile-wlde desert
where the sand was mixed with gold
dust. and of which no one knew the ex-
Istence but himself. To no better SUBJ
jects could he have told his story for
credence, for all of them had been inoc-
ulated with the prospecting and mining
fever from their childhood. The dust,
he said, was rich; indeed, the speci-
mems he showed were of an extraordi-
nary character. He added that the
gold lay sixty miles from water, thus
showing the necessity of carrying
water i'm great quantity on the sug-
gested prospecting tour. 1t took the
party week to fit out. and then it
started from Ell Paso. The outfit con-
sisted of an intelligent California min
ing expert, an Ell Paso merchant and
man called Swiss Joe They had a
good team of horses hitched TO a long
box wagon, and three brOnchoS TO ride.
The preparations for the trip had Gre
ated some curiosity, and it took the
party several days to dodge the men
who were found following them. 1t
occupied over a week TO reach San An
tonic Springs, where the water barrels
and canteens were filled before enter
ing the desert. On the evening of the
second day out from the springs the
party made a dry camp at a promon-
tory of rocks which jutted out into the
burning desert. Up to this time Mexi-
can Joe, the guide, had refused to say
any thing. except in a general way, as
TO the location of the gold. Now, he
told the party that it lay twenty miles
out in the desert from the point of
rocks. He proposed that. as the coun-
try was rough, the miner, merchant
and Swiss Joe should ride to the spot
in the morning and collect what speci-
mems they pleased; that he should
drive north along the base of the rocky
range to another point of rocks, which
he pointed out, and that the party
should cut across the desert from the
gold find and meet him there. In
other words, he was to drive along one
side of triangle while the miner and
partners were to travel the two other
sides. All this was agreed TO.
Shortly after sunrise the next morn
ing the trio started out, full of hope
and courage. What little wind there
was came from behind. and the dust
nearly .choked them. The glare of the